Tribune-Herald
Hits have been hard to come by for the University of Hawaii on the road.
For the second consecutive baseball game, the Warriors came up with only three Saturday and took another 4-1 loss against Cal Irvine.
Corey MacDonald was solid again for Hawaii (7-20, 2-3 Big West), but he was bested by Matt Whitehouse, who struck out nine in 7 1/3 innings.
Piikea Kitamura (2 for 3) provided the Warriors’ offense with a two-out RBI single in the eight against Mitch Merten. However, Kitamura was caught stealing to end the inning.
After a dreadful start to the season, Hawaii won six of eight to seemingly stem the tide. But now it faces its third three-game losing streak of the season.
MacDonald (3-3), who had won three of his last four decisions, allowed seven hits, three earned runs and a walk with five strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. But his pitch count grew to 106 and his last offering was deposited by Dominique Taylor over the left-field fence for a two-run homer that staked the Anteaters (19-8, 2-3) to a 4-0 lead.
Chris Rabago was 3 for 4 for Irvine, singling and scoring in the third, and Connor Spencer doubled in the sixth and came home on Taylor Sparks’ base hit. Rabago also scored ahead of Taylor’s homer.
Whitehouse yielded just two hits, two walks and an unearned run. Race Parmenter worked a perfect ninth to get a save, his sixth, for the second straight day.
Austin Wobrock extended his hitting streak to five games for UH, which will try to salvage the final game of the three-game series at 10 a.m. HST today.